“But I have a bad smell,” said the man, almost apologizing before approaching.
Lady Gaga didn't leave.
“Don’t worry, too,” he replied.
Then he put himself next to him for a photograph.
The scene dates back about ten years ago, outside a hotel in Los Angeles, after one of his concerts. But what made that particular moment was not simply the encounter between a celebrity and a man who lived on the street.
It was the way it happened.
Lady Gaga gave him a rose, gave him money and remained to speak with him, without treating that meeting as something to be concluded quickly.
At some point, the man wanted to give her something.
He gave her a ring.
He could have thanked him and kept him. Gaga, on the other hand, put it immediately to his finger and showed it enthusiastically, giving value to that little gift as he would do with something precious.
And this is perhaps the detail that makes the scene so human.
For a few minutes there were no international star and a man in trouble.
There were just two people talking to each other.
According to the story cited in the following years, the two would meet again about three months later.
This time he had something for her.
A flower.
A tiny gesture, but capable of completely overturning the roles of the first encounter: the man who had received a rose could finally be what offered it.
Sometimes respect passes just by seemingly insignificant details.
Approaching when someone fears that others can move away.
Accept a gift without giving weight to its value.
And above all to remind a person who, beyond any social condition, still deserves to be looked into the eyes.